Ridley Scott Alien Prequel Movie = Awesome

Director Ridley Scott—who's prepping a prequel to his seminal 1979 sci-fi movie Alien—is now saying that the movie will indeed deal with the identity of the "space jockey" discovered by the crew of the Nostromo on LV-426 in the original movie.


It's one of the nagging mysteries from the original movie: Who were the race that crashed that giant ship on LV-426 in the first place, leaving a wreck—and a bunch of leathery alien eggs—for Ripley and her crew to discover?Of course, Scott's saying this only after previously telling reporters that the envisioned prequel wouldn't deal with that subject. Sheesh.

Here's what he told MTV:

It's set in 2085, about 30 years before Sigourney [Weaver's character Ellen Ripley]. It's fundamentally about going out to find out 'Who the hell was that Space Jockey?' The guy who was sitting in the chair in the alien vehicle—there was a giant fellow sitting in a seat on what looked to be either a piece of technology or an astronomer's chair. Remember that? ... And our man [Tom Skerritt as Captain Dallas] climbs up and says "There's been an explosion in his chest from the inside out—what was that?" I'm basically explaining who that Space Jockey—we call him the Space Jockey—I'm explaining who the space jockeys were.

As for the status of the movie? Scott says it's still being written.

As we speak, I've got a pile of pages next to me; it's like the fourth draft. It's a work in progress, but we're not dreaming it up anymore. We know what the story is. We're now actually trying to improve the three acts and make the characters better, build it up to something [we can shoot]. It's a work in progress, but we're actually making the film. There's no question about it, we're going to make the film.

Stay tuned!